Author
Topic: Gas--Regular, Midgrade, or Premium (Read 19632 times)

I run 87 in my Mazda, occasionally 89 if I can get it for not much more. It improves gas mileage -slightly-, but not enough to usually justify it's purchase. The car doesn't really run any better on 89. If I end up putting the Turbo on it, I'll have to run premium though. Not doing that until the warrenty expires, however, so no worries yet.

The Bandit, however, runs on Premium and only Premium! I ran 87 octane -once- and it pinged like crazy. 89 octane is doable, but it still pings under heavy load. 91 octane and she's smooth.

There are sooo many variables associated with this, it's not worth arguing. But, that said I run 87 in the bandit and 89 in the merkur(turbo) In the winter I have run 87 when the air charge temps are a little cooler, and this is with 18#'s of boost. It just depends on where you live, how you ride, etc.....Josh

I run my 05 B12 on 91 octane as recommended in the manual. It seems to run just fine.

Just as well to as here in the good old NZ the price of fuel is increasing weekly.

At the moment we are paying $1.55 lt for 91 and over $1.60 lt for 96. Also one of the big companies is withdrawing 96 in favour of 98 octane. They are doing the hard sell and stating that it is a performance fuel and is reccommended for late model sedans and sports cars. Thats just great but at nearly $1.70 a liter they can keep it.

My wife thinks I should trade the B12 on a 50cc scooter

Logged

Taken over by the dark side. Now riding a CB 1300 but visit my old bandit regular.

even with an advancer, jet kit & slip-on, 87 is fine, even in 100 degree summers in Okla CIty...I use 86 in the mountains....the only time I ever had problems was in hot muggy traffic at Daytona and it was pinging pretty bad, I did switch to premium.....

The problem with what you say here is that "pinging" is usually only audible and problematic under heavy load/throttle. If you heard it in traffic at Daytona where you were presumably just cruising around I'd be pretty damn concerned!

Unless you have some phenomenal hearing, I have a hard time with anyone hearing pinging on a bike with a slip-on and wind noise to boot. I was barely able to hear it on my bike when it was still stock, and then only under the following conditions:~warm weather~3-4th gear~full throttle roll on @ 2-4000rpm ~leaning off the bike with my ear near the valve cover

It always did it with regular of any brand and didn't with mid-grade of any brand. This was sufficient and there was no need to switch to premium.

Although many Bandits may run fine on regular, bikes vary and people's ability to pick up on issues like pinging vary even more.A bike that was not broken in properly or has tons of miles on it may very well have .5:1 lower compression and that IMO is enough to prevent pinging on regular.

It was due to high traffic & high heat......was very severe. only occurance...bike does have advancer, etc.

I thought I was pretty clear. It was 2 1/2 years ago and the bike has another 15k miles (45k now)

Guys, I've heard all the arguements for and against the use of premium v regular. And you can fire all the facts, or, so called facts, owners manuals, my mates a professor, my bike mechanic said, out the bloody window.The cold hard facts are, if your bike pings when you use regular, ( and there is no other contributing factors ) change to premium. If your bike runs notiably better on premium keep using it.If your bike runs just fine on regular, stick to it. Thats the end of the story.Personally I have no choise but to run premium, the poor little B6 pings its little brains out on regular, ( And I can clearly hear it under load, I dont need to lean down and put my ear to the rocker cover) yet its fine on premium. No, my little B6 is not stock, Mid pipe, muffler, air box, carb mods, and advanced igniton timing. Compresson however is stock.

Next I will be reading how shell optimax, is crap. (Like I keep hearing here in Oz) Funny thing is some people here in oz bag the stuff big time, and state how they never, use nothing but BP ultimate cause its so much better........ Funny thing is, BP premium fuel plant has been offline, so what have they been selling unbeknown to most people, yep you guessed it, shell optimax. But I must admit I am a fan of the vortex product.

Logged

Foot loose and fancy free.Looking for adventure and what ever comes our way.

I'm with you Mick. Use what you bike likes. The premium stuff makes no noticable difference for me, except it empties my wallet quicker. However, the Treasures M750 runs like shyte on anything but premium, and she agress the Vortex stuff is pretty good. She's tried the optimax once and the bike didn't seem 'right', but maybe it was just a bad tank full. We've got a couple of Kmart vouchers, so she'll probably fill up on the optimax this weekend, and see how it goes.

Hey there PaulVS. I checked the manual again and it definately states 91 Octane. So does the sticker on the fuel tank. Not sure who RON is but bike runs great on the fuel I am using. I did not realise prior to this post what a huge spread there is when talking types and qualities of fuel. All I knew is how expensive it is becoming.

Logged

Taken over by the dark side. Now riding a CB 1300 but visit my old bandit regular.

Hey there PaulVS. I checked the manual again and it definately states 91 Octane. So does the sticker on the fuel tank. Not sure who RON is but bike runs great on the fuel I am using. I did not realise prior to this post what a huge spread there is when talking types and qualities of fuel. All I knew is how expensive it is becoming.

If N.Z. uses RON method... you're probably using the equivalent of 87/88 octane U.S.

when I pick my bike my good mate told me only use feul that is 91% & higher well vortex prim is 95% & vortex Gold is 98% these are the only two I use I seem to get better km's from both & the bike runs great ( I now use vortex prim in my car & get about 80 kms more them regular feul) .

1) Octane requirements are reduced by about 1 RON per 1000 feet of altitude. Besides the Yamaha I have an older Dodge Charger very sensitive to Octane. At sea level (especially in Summer) she needs 91. In Calgary at 3500ft 87 octane is OK. Another variable is that Vancouver has hills - Calgary really doesn't - so more of an opportunity to damage your engine in Vancouver over time.

2) Premium gasoline is manufactured in a refinery in a number of ways according to the age of the technology. Platforming is older, Continuous Catalytic Reforming is newer. Either way the plant "units" and processes involving platinum catalysts are extremely expensive - these units do not have a secondary purpose besides making higher octane. Premium gasoline typically has about 2% higher "energy density" than regular. Although really hard to measure this should equate to 2% better fuel mileage.

3) Premium gasolines are handled entirely separately once they leave the process unit which increases distribution costs. Most new service stations blend their 89 mid-grade through their pumps and only carry 87 and 91 octane in below ground wet storage.

4) Premium gasoline is not only about octane - Brand name oil companies typically fortify their premium products with additional chemical additive packages - almost always injected at the local truck loading rack. For instance Shell V-Power has twice the additive package that their Bronze gasoline does - as well as the higher octane.